Since getting my Pressure Cooker I have fallen deeply and madly in love with it. Like this thing has earned permanent coveted space on my kitchen counter. And if you know me, that space is PRIME real estate! It means “Hey I’m proud of this and use it all the time” which is true of this thing. I had been craving ribs pretty bad. Now I’m finicky when it comes to ribs. I hate them fatty and even though you’re supposed to have sauce on your chin, cheeks, fingers and so forth I do try to be somewhat lady-like when eating them. BAHAHA okay well at least part of that statement is true *wink*.

I was at the butchers and spied the most gorgeous slab of St. Louis Ribs ever. We’re talking fat, meaty and just begging to core home with me. Therefore in the cart they went and there on my counter they sat. Normally really awesome ribs take hours to make as their are slow roasted or smoked. However my belly did not want to hear that. They wanted no part of “give it time and the flavors will come. Go eat a protein bar woman.” Yeah, I wasn’t having that. Since discovering all the awesome recipes you can make in the pressure cooker I was bound and determined to make the ribs in it. Now obviously the whole rack couldn’t fit in as-is so I had to cut them down to fit.

One thing I’m a HUGE fan of with ribs is when they are meaty. I like it where the bone is in the middle and there is meat on both sides.
Now some may not like that at it means you are guaranteed to get all kinds of sloppy from the sauce on your face (but seriously it’s ribs… so what!). But if you’re delicate and eating these requires you to maintain your beauty to be untarnished by the sauce, you can use your fork on one side of the bone to pull the meat away. But again, it’s wings… use your inner carnivore and ravage them bad boys because lord knows I did! To get the ribs like that, meat on both sides the cutting process it a bit tedious but it’s not difficult and honestly if you don’t want to take the time doing this you can easily just cut the ribs in sections of threes and cook normally. It’s your call. This is just my preference on cooking St. Louis Ribs. I wouldn’t recommend doing that method on Baby Back ribs as there simply isn’t enough meat and it’s more of a PITA than anything.

What is important when you cut ribs is to remove the membrane on the backside. You do NOT want that when you cook. Any bbq pit master I know removes it. The bone side has a silvery membrane that should be removed. The membrane can also get very tough and chewy, especially if you cook hot, and if you cook low and slow, it can get rubbery. Gross, huh? Remove it.

If you’re new to my site (welcome!) I have tons of sauces on here and am always coming up new ways to kick them up even more. I want that flavor train to just explode in your mouth and blow your mind! This recipe has definitely met that expectation. There’s no pre-cooking or simmering. The only additional non-pressure cooker step is putting them under the broiler for a few minutes to get that awesome char on them. You can do the same thing on a grill. Make the ribs ahead of time and right before you’re ready to serve, pop them on the grill and baste away until the sauce chars. Trust me, your guests (and your stomach will thank you!). No longer do you have to slave hours over the fire pit or smoker for ribs. Don’t get me wrong, those are AMAZING but these ones are a top contender.

I’m fortunate enough to have some amazing TKW family members that are champion Pit Bosses who have taken me under their wing when it comes to grilling and giving advice since they know I suck at it. That’s why 99% of my recipes are not grilled on a real grill. Okay that and the fact that Mr. Fantabulous and I have now an 8-year long argument on my buying a new BBQ. Yes, 8 LONG years. *sigh* But in a way I’m sort of thankful for that fight (and if you repeat that I said that I will deny, deny deny… er um, wait, it’s in writing. Crap… *wink*!). I’m thankful it taught me to be more resourceful and accommodate those that don’t have a grill or can’t have one (Are you married to a Mr. Fantabulous also? LOL).

Once I chopped them down, added the sauce I had to do a bit of calculation on the timing for these. I knew High pressure. Since these were a bit over 3 1/2 pounds in weight I opted for a longer time – 30 minutes. Normally you want 15-18 minutes for ever 2 pounds of pork ribs. I went on the side of caution with a longer time. I’m so happy I did. When they were done and the pressure was released I was met with fall off the bone ribs already! Even though I have a pretty good understanding of how amazing the foots

Now getting them out was a little tricky only because they were so tender. I would advise using a large slotted spatula and gently taking them up. Don’t worry, once you slather them with the thickened bbq sauce and broil/grill them they are finger holdin’ perfect! Oh if you’re delicate, knife and fork ready… wuss *wink*. LOL

What I love, Love, LOVE about this Pressure Cookeris that it has a browning feature which allows me to take all of that sauce/juice and thicken it up in a single pot to the most awesomest bbq sauces! Folks that whiskey bbq sauce was pure heaven! This is HUGE! I mean one – this means you don’t have to dirty a pot and 2 dude….

WHISKEY

BBQ

SAUCE!

The sauces thickens up in no time and all I had to do was slather on some sauce, broil these for a few minutes and out of the oven they came. They smelled like they had been cooking for hours when realistically they were done in under what, 40 minutes? C’mon, how good can they really be? I mean ribs, cooked in under 40 minutes that are juicy, tender and fall off the bone???

You’re damn straight! These rival those competition ribs for their flavor and tenderness!

Just like clockwork I heard Mr. Fantabulous coming out to the kitchen, sniffing away. You could see that the smell intrigued him until…

yes, until he saw that they were ribs. Ribs are one thing he’s really not a fan of. Not because he doesn’t like the taste but because they are normally really fatty. But since he loves me (and he has no choice) he tried one.

Now did you ever tell your child to at least try something even though they already made their mind up without having tried the item first that they weren’t going to like it? And before they went to put it in their mouth, their lips already formed the ‘EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!’ face, their eyes shut tight and their nose squinched up? Yeah.. he did that. I couldn’t help but giggle. But then…

yes, but then he bite down and those flavors exploded in his mouth. The meat just seemed to melt like butter and he was left with such an amazing flavor of the most tender ribs and succulent bbq sauce. His eyes got as big as silver dollars and although he tried to fight back a smile I knew he loved them. Yet the little brat, when he finished swallowing, merely said “Not bad. I think I need another taste just to be sure though” and proceeded to open his mouth baby-sparrow style. LOL God help me I swear!

Needless to say WE annihilated those ribs in a single night! We had them for dinner and then later on for a snack during our movie. Reheated they were just as amazing! To reheat I just put them on a foil lined pan, popped them in the oven for 10-15, rebasted wtih some sauce and they were just as amazing!

Folks I’m telling you, if you don’t have a pressure cooker you NEED to buy this Pressure Cooker! If you do have one, dust it off and use it! This is one of the BEST pieces of kitchen equipment I have ever purchased! I mean just look at these pictures! Look how tender and juicy the meat is! It just falls off the bone and practically into your mouth!

With a sharp knife, remove the skirt meat from bone side. This is the extra flap of meat and fat.

Using a knife, insert that between the bone and membrane (bone side). Gently lift up to break the membrane away from the bone.

Using 2 sets of paper towels – one in each hand, grab the ribs with one hand and the membrane with the other and pull the membrane off and discard. Once you lift the edge of the membrane, you'll notice what appears to be another membrane layer. Do not remove it. The second membrane is needed to hold the ribs together. After you get the membrane started, work your finger under the top membrane until you have it pulled loose on the first rib bone. Now you can use the paper towels. The membrane is hard to hold onto, but you can get a good grip with the paper towels. Holding the slab down with one hand, begin pulling the membrane back away. As you get some of the membrane pulled off, roll it around the paper towel so that you can pull on the membrane closer to the ribs. This will help keep the membrane from tearing. If it does tear, just try to pry it up again and grip with towels and continue removing until all of the membrane is off.

Flip the ribs over and using a sharp knife, cut off every other bone. Place the knife on an angle against the bone.

Take the knife and go to the other side of the bone cutting in on an opposite angle. The goal is to leave as little meat on the bone that you remove.

Cut that extra rib in half (where the bone was). Essentially you want meat on both sides of the bone.

For 2 racks, I would go with 25-30 minutes at high for the stove top. 30 minutes will give you fall off the bone. Check it at 25, then if they aren’t as soft as you want, just close the lid, bring back up to pressure and cook for 5 minutes more.

The only thing I would make sure you check out is when you put your ribs in you do not want to go above the max fill line.

PS. For new-comers:
I have several BBQ grills/smoker abandoned except for sentimental occasions when we stand around a smoky grill and baste and socialize. The PC does in quick-time minutes with better results what grills and ovens do in hours.

I always like reading about pressure cooking (PC) and go as far as telling total strangers about my experiences. I own almost every cooking method but can now do everything (almost) in one pot, my stove-top stainless steel pressure cooker (PC) is 10 to 15 yrs old and I’ve cooked pork shoulder/butt for carnitas, chicken breasts – fresh & frozen, ribs, dry beans, rice etc and every PC has a browning feature, just cook with the lid off. If you have any doubts or questions, just internet search and you’ll find 10,000 people talking about it. My best tip – individual frozen chicken pieces. I get home tired and put olive oil, chicken stock, seasoning, and some frozen chicken in the PC and 20 minutes later I have tender chicken. You can start your 20 minute rice at the same time and/or heat up your cooked beans and vegetable while waiting.

LOVE LOVE LOVE your comments! And I so agree with you on using the PC when you’re dog tired and really don’t want to stand over the stove cooking. Even though I do this for a living I still get tired and really don’t have the desire to make a meal that requires 42 pots. I’m so in love with pressure cooking. It’s fast, convenient and the flavors are incredible!

Amazing! Can’t eat hot/spicy food so left the paprika and cayenne pepper out of recipe but they still turned out great. Best BBQ ribs I have ever tasted–in restaurants or cooked by myself. Love it. Thanks for sharing.

I’m sorry, I had technical difficulty when trying to send my message. My entry above did NOT mention that I had recently purchased a Wolfgang Puck 8qt Rapid Release pressure cooker. My attempts have been “hit or miss” and the only dish that came out successful so far, has been a Cornish hen. The white meat was actually juicy.

The ribs I spoke of above, were St. Louis style. The recipe I followed was for Baby Back ribs, which said to cook 15 minutes then do a rapid release. I opened the pressure cooker, only to discover they were not done. So when I go on to describe what I had discovered, it was NOT when following your recipe, but the one for Baby Back ribs.

Yeah I’m not familiar with the Wolfgang Puck pressure cooker at all. I am honestly in love with the one I use (and mention above). Every single recipe I’ve made in it has come out to die for and I stand by it 1 bajillion percent. So let’s talk about where yours went wrong. My ribs are St. Louis ribs which are fatter, meatier and bigger than baby back like what you used thus mine take 30 minutes. If you cook for 30 minutes they just fall off the bone. Definitely try my recipe with the St. Louis ribs.

I’d love nothing more than to start publishing cookbooks but the thing is, I don’t have an agent or someone that can help with that. Someday.. 🙂

No worries Sandy. If you want, email me at lori@thekitchenwhisperer.net and we can talk offline about your pressure cooking troubles you’ve been having with your Wolfgang Puck pressure cooker. As stated earlier, I’m not familiar with that one as once I got my hands on this one (http://astore.amazon.com/thekitcwhis-20/detail/B007NOZ8K8) I’ll never have another electric one. I know this one works every single time. Maybe you can return yours for this?

Oh yeah if you used St. Louis ribs for a baby back ribs recipe they will most certainly take about 30 minutes.

After doing the quick release, I discovered my ribs were NOT done and were lean. I closed it again and cooked for an additional 3 minutes, for a total of 18. They were better than before, but I was totally disappointed. The ribs were not “to die for” by any stretch of the imagination.

When I read you had cooked yours for 30 minutes and they turned out with flavors that “exploded” in one’s mouth, I printed out your instructions.

Using my pressure cooker, I had a fabulous Cornish hen and the white meat was actually juicy, so I know all is not lost. The big problem is finding recipes for items not found in pressure cookers. I think you should write one. Thanks for giving me hope!

Bought a pressure cooker about 3 weeks ago. I have cooked three roasts make soup so far. My next venture will be your ribs. I got so hungry reading you article that I had to go get a bowl of cereal. Just didn’t do the trick, so tomorrow to my butcher. My roasts have been delicious. One was cooked using pepperoncinI juice and water, salt, pepper, garlic. My son said it was the best roast he had ever eaten. There is something about the flavor of the foods cooked a pressure cooker or could be luck on my first outings. Great article as always. I’ll be back to submit my rating once it has been ingested.